weird
I am researching a paper for an independent study contract this morning (for about 5 minutes while my friend distracts the slightly sick small) and today I am looking at newspapers articles from 1946 about mothers and welfare. I am down to looking at refugees or single mothers - take the one issue and identify times where we made big legislative changes - then look at the images presented in the media of that group prior to the changes - see if I can identify the way the media framed an issue and the legislative changes that results. Anyway, the weirdness.
So I am reading lots of horrible (but mercifully short) articles about destitute women and children. And there is this weird, recurring theme, that infants are supposed to understand court proceedings. So I just read an article about a boy who 'sat staring moodily, ignoring the court procedure until he was committed to the care of the State until he is 18'. Sounds reasonable at this point, right? It goes on to note that the reason for the yell may be that 'he will be in the care of the State for the next 17 and 3/4 years'. So.... you think a 3 month old should have been engaging with the court about his care? Thankfully they did note that he was too young to be taken from his mother yet.
The next one I read was dumbfounded about how a 6 month old slept through the court proceeding that made him a ward of the state. Didn't pay a bit of attention to the thing.
I mean, WTF? My kid was considered to be pretty alert and engaged with his surroundings, mostly, as an infant, but I never tried to explain civil procedure to him - and he listened to pretty much a whole semester's worth of lectures in utero!
So I am reading lots of horrible (but mercifully short) articles about destitute women and children. And there is this weird, recurring theme, that infants are supposed to understand court proceedings. So I just read an article about a boy who 'sat staring moodily, ignoring the court procedure until he was committed to the care of the State until he is 18'. Sounds reasonable at this point, right? It goes on to note that the reason for the yell may be that 'he will be in the care of the State for the next 17 and 3/4 years'. So.... you think a 3 month old should have been engaging with the court about his care? Thankfully they did note that he was too young to be taken from his mother yet.
The next one I read was dumbfounded about how a 6 month old slept through the court proceeding that made him a ward of the state. Didn't pay a bit of attention to the thing.
I mean, WTF? My kid was considered to be pretty alert and engaged with his surroundings, mostly, as an infant, but I never tried to explain civil procedure to him - and he listened to pretty much a whole semester's worth of lectures in utero!